What kind of grammar word is from

We intuitively know what a WORD is. In written language words are separated by spaces. In spoken language you can sometimes hear a pause between them, although in most cases there’s nothing noticeable that separates words in spoken language.

We can distinguish the orthographic word, the grammatical word and the lexeme.

An ORTHOGRAPHIC WORD is a word form separated by spaces from other orthographic words in written texts and the corresponding form in spoken language.

In the example:

She wanted to win the game.

there are six orthographic words: she, wanted, to, win, the and game.

A GRAMMATICAL WORD is a word form used for a specific grammatical purpose.

For example in the sentence:

That man over there said that he would like to talk to you.

we have the word THAT used twice. This is one orthographic word, but we’re dealing with two grammatical words here: the first THAT is a demonstrative adjective and the other THAT is a conjunction.

A LEXEME is a group of word forms with the same basic meaning that belong to the same word class.

For example the words AM, WAS, IS belong to one lexeme, as they have the same basic meaning and are all verbs. Also the words COME and CAME belong to the same lexeme.

How do they relate to one another?

In many cases orthographic and grammatical words overlap. For example in the sentence:

They bought the house.

there are four orthographic words and four grammatical words, so there is one-to-one correspondence in this case.

But if we slightly modify the sentence like so:

They didn’t buy the house.

there are now five orthographic words and six grammatical words. This is because the orthographic word DIDN’T represents a sequence of two grammatical words: DID + NOT.

It may also be the other way around. In the sentence:

I kind of like it.

there are five orthographic words, but only four grammatical words, because the two orthographic words KIND OF actually represent a single grammatical word.

You can also watch the video version here:

Reblogged from Psychology Today

When we speak our native language we unconsciously follow certain rules. These rules are different in different languages. For example, if I want to talk about a particular collection of oranges, in English I say 

Those three big oranges

In Thai, however, I’d say 

Sôm jàj sǎam-lûuk nán

This is, literally, Oranges big three those, the reverse of the English order. Both English and Thai are pretty strict about this, and if you mess up the order, speakers will say that you’re not speaking the language fluently.

The rule of course doesn’t mention particular words, like big, or nán, it applies to whole classes of words. These classes are what linguists call grammatical categories: things like Noun, Verb, Adjective and less familiar ones like Numeral (for words like three or five) and Demonstrative (the term linguists use for words like this and those). Adjectives, Numerals and Demonstratives give extra information about the noun, and linguists call these words modifiers. The rules of grammar tell us the order of these whole classes of words. 

Where do these rules come from? The common-sense answer is that we learn them: as English speakers grow up, they hear the people around them saying many, many sentences, and from these they generalize the English order; Thai speakers, hearing Thai sentences, generalize the opposite order (and English-Thai bilinguals get both). That’s why, if you present an English or Thai speaker with the wrong order, they’ll immediately detect something is wrong.

But this common-sense answer raises an interesting puzzle. The rules in English, from this kind of perspective, look roughly as follows:

The normal order of words that modify nouns is:

• Demonstratives precede Numerals, Adjectives and Nouns

• Numerals precede Adjectives and Nouns

• Adjectives precede Nouns

There are 24 possible ways of ordering the four grammatical categories. If the order in different languages is simply a result of speakers learning their languages, then we’d expect to see all 24 possibilities available in languages around the world. Everything else being equal, we’d also expect the various orders to be pretty much equally common.

However, in the 1960s, the comparative linguist, Joseph Greenberg, looked at a bunch of unrelated languages and found that this simply wasn’t true. Some orders were much more common than others, and some orders simply didn’t seem to be present in languages at all. More recent work by Matthew Dryer looking at a much larger collection of languages has confirmed Greenberg’s original finding. It turns out that the English and Thai orders are by far the most common, while other orders—such as that of Kîîtharaka, a Bantu language spoken in Kenya, in which you say something like Oranges those three big—are much rarer. Dryer, like Greenberg, found that some orders just didn’t exist at all.article continues after advertisement

This is a surprise if speakers learn the order of words from what they hear (which they surely do), and each order is just as learnable as the others. It suggests either that some historical accident has led to certain orders being more frequent in the world’s languages, or, alternatively, that the human mind somehow prefers some orders to others, so these are the ones that, over time, end up being more common.

To test this, my colleagues Jennifer Culbertson, Alexander Martin, Klaus Abels, and I are running a series of experiments. In these, we teach people an invented language, with specially designed words that are easily learnable, whether the native language of our speakers is English, Thai or Kîîtharaka. We call this language Nápíjò and we tell the people who are doing the experiments that it’s a language spoken by about 10,000 people in rural South-East Asia. This is to make Nápíjò as real as possible to people. 

Though we keep the words in Nápíjò the same for all our speakers, we mess around with the order of words. When we test English speakers, we teach them a version of Nápíjò with the Adjectives, Numerals and Demonstratives after the Noun (unlike in English); we also teach Nápíjò to Thai speakers, but we use a version with all these classes of words before the noun (unlike in Thai).

The idea behind the experiments is this: We teach speakers some Nápíjò, enough so they know the order of the noun and the modifiers, but not enough so they know how the modifiers are ordered with respect to each other. Then we have them guess the order of the modifiers. Their guesses tell us about what kind of grammar rule they are learning, and the pattern of the guesses should tell us something about whether that grammar rule is coming from their native language, or from something deeper in their minds.article continues after advertisement

In the experiments, we show speakers pictures of various situations–for example, a girl pointing to a collection of feathers—and we give our speakers the Nápíjò phrase that corresponds to these. The Nápíjò phrases that the participants hear for the diagrams below would correspond to red feather on the left and to that feather, on the right. We give the speakers enough examples so that they learn the pattern.

Red Feather and That Feather

Once the participants in the experiment have learned the pattern, we then test to see what they would do when you have two modifiers: for example, an Adjective and a Numeral, or a Demonstrative and an Adjective. We have of course, somewhat evilly, not given our speakers any clue as to what they should do. They have to guess!

Now, if the speakers are simply using the order of words from their native language, then they should be more likely to guess that the order of words in Nápíjò would follow it. That’s not, however, what English or Thai speakers do.

For a picture that shows a girl pointing at “those red feathers”, English speakers don’t guess that the Nápíjò order is Feathers those red, which would keep the English order of modifiers but is very rare cross-linguistically when the noun comes first. Instead, they are far more likely to go for Feathers red those, which is very common cross-linguistically (it is the Thai order), but is definitely not the English order of the modifiers.article continues after advertisement

Thai speakers, similarly, didn’t keep the Thai order of Adjective and Demonstrative. Instead, they were more likely to guess the English order, which, when the noun comes last (as it did for them), is very common across languages.  

This suggests that the patterns of language types discovered by Greenberg, and put on an even firmer footing by Dryer, may not be the result of chance or of history. Rather the human mind may have an inherent bias towards certain word orders over others.

Our experiments are not quite finished, however. Both English and Thai speakers use patterns in their native language that are very common in languages generally. But what would happen if we tested speakers of one of the very rare patterns? Would even they still guess that Nápíjò uses an order which is more frequent in languages of the world?

The U.K. team with local team member Patrick Kanampiu

To find out, we’ve just arrived in Kenya, where we will do a final set of experiments. We’ll test speakers of Kîîtharaka (where the order is roughly Oranges those three big). We’ll test them on a version of Nápíjò where the noun comes last, unlike in their own language. If they behave just like Thai speakers, who we also taught a version of Nápíjò where the noun comes last, we will have really strong evidence that the linguistic nature of the human mind shapes the rules we learn. Who knows though, science is, after all, a risky business!    

(Many thanks to my co-researchers, Jenny Culbertson (Principal Investigator), Alexander Martin and Klaus Abels for comments, and to the UK Economic and Social Research Council for funding this research)

Most people think of themselves as grammar rebels, seeing the rules as strict, basic and arbitrary. But grammar is actually complex, not to mention essential: Incorrect grammar can cause confusion and change the way you’re perceived (or even keep you from landing a job).

That’s why a grammar checker is essential if writing is part of your workday — even if that’s just sending emails. Here’s what else you should know about grammar:

What is grammar in English?

At a high level, the definition of grammar is a system of rules that allow us to structure sentences. It includes several aspects of the English language, like:

Grammar’s wide scope can make proofreading difficult. And the dry, academic conversations that often revolve around it can make people’s eyes glaze over. But without these grammatical rules, chaos would ensue. So even if you aren’t a fan (and who really is?), it’s still important to understand.

Types of grammar (and theories)

As long as there have been rules of grammar, there have been theories about what makes it work and how to classify it. For example, American linguist Noam Chomsky posited the theory of universal grammar. It says that common rules dictate all language.

In his view, humans have an innate knowledge of language that informs those rules. That, he reasoned, is why children can pick up on complex grammar without explicit knowledge of the rules. But grammarians still debate about whether this theory holds true.

There are also prescriptive and descriptive grammar types:

Another theory emerges from these types of English grammar: primacy of spoken language. It says language comes from the spoken word, not writing — so that’s where you’ll find answers to what’s grammatically correct. Though not everyone agrees with that theory, either.

How did grammar become what it is today?

Grammar has been in a constant state of evolution, starting with the creation of the first textbook on the subject in about 100 BC by the Greeks (termed the Greek grammatikē). The Romans later adapted their grammar to create Latin grammar (or Latin grammatica), which spread out across Europe to form the basis for languages like Spanish and French. Eventually, Latin grammar became the basis of the English model in the 11th century. The rules of grammar (as well as etymology) changed with the times, from Middle English in the 15th century, to what we know today.

Another consequence of grammatical changes has been the development of various areas of linguistic study, like phonology (how languages or dialects organize their sounds) and morphology (how words are formed how and their relationships work).

The ancient grammar rules have changed as people have tested alternative ways to use language. Authors, for example, have broken the rules to various levels of success:

• Shakespeare ended sentences with prepositions: “Fly to others that we know not of.”
• Jane Austen used double negatives: “When Mr. Collins said any thing of which his wife might reasonably be ashamed, which certainly was not unseldom, she involuntarily turned her eye on Charlotte.”
• William Faulkner started sentences with conjunctions: “But before the captain could answer, a major appeared from behind the guns.”

Cultural norms shape grammar rules, too. The Associated Press, for example, recognized they as a singular pronoun in 2017. But before that, English grammar teachers the world over broke out their red pens to change it to he or she.

Yes, American grammar has a longstanding tradition of change — borrowing words from other languages and testing out different forms of expression — which could explain why many find it confusing. Although most people no longer call early education “grammar school,” it’s still an important topic of study. And as more people have access to updated information about the subject, it’s become easier to follow the rules.

Five authors on grammar

If anyone appreciates the role of grammar, it’s writers:

Six examples of grammar rules

Here are six common grammar mistakes (and example sentences) to help you improve your writing:

Semicolon use: Semicolons are typically used to connect related ideas — but often a new sentence (instead of a semicolon) is more fitting.

Ending a sentence with a preposition: Some used to consider it wrong to end with a preposition (e.g. to, of, with, at, from), but now it’s acceptable in most informal contexts.

Splitting infinitives: Avoid it in formal settings, otherwise, it’s fine.

Beginning a sentence with because: It’s ok as long as the sentence is complete. 

Subject-verb agreement: The verb of a sentence should match the subject’s plurality (or singularity).

Passive voice: In general, use active voice — that means the subject acts upon the verb. In passive voice, the verb acts upon the subject, resulting in a weaker sentence.

Grammar Definition

In general, when defining Grammar, it is important to start by saying that this discipline is an inseparable part of Linguistics, a science dedicated to the study of language, at each of its levels: Phonetic-Phonological; Syntactic-morphological, lexical-semantic and pragmatic. Consequently, grammar will be conceived as the linguistic discipline, which is responsible for studying, describing and in some cases even promulgating (in the case of prescriptive grammar) the different rules by which a language is handled, as well as the different rules and relationships that are established between words and sentences, so it can be said then that the vast majority of Grammar develops at the syntactic-morphological level of the Language, even when there are sources that They say that this point is not so precise when one thinks for example that within the Grammar there are rules of concern directly to the phonetic-phonological level.

Grammar Descriptive Role

Despite what most speakers think, Linguistics – and thus its different disciplines, including Grammar – does not produce or promulgate the rules by which the Language works, which are decided by the speakers themselves, unconsciously , intangible, collective and through the multiple generations that make up a speech community, but are simply responsible for observing, studying and recording the use that community makes of the Language. However, as in a linguistic community there are hundreds of ways to perform the Language, Grammar for example chooses to look at the model language of that community, registering then the ideal way in which that language conceives itself, that is, the total norms, forms, uses and relationships of the different grammatical categories and other syntactic constituents. Hence – although there is a prescriptive grammar – the Grammar is generally assumed as a descriptive discipline.

Etymology of the word Grammar

With respect to the etymology of the word Grammar, the different theoretical sources coincide in indicating that this word has its origin in the Latin word grammatĭca, which in turn can be traced to a Greek voice of form γραμματικῆ τέχνη ( grammatikḗ tékhne ) denomination compound, whose meanings would be related to the following:

From Greece, the term grammatikḗ tékhne passed into the Latin language, where it assumed the grammatĭca form . However, during the third century BC by the famous Latin grammarian Elio Donato, a new order was established, since the reading and interpretation of texts, included for the Greeks also in the conception of grammatikḗ tékhne became seen as a branch own, which was called literature (word that comes in turn from the word littera , which can also be translated as letter) while they chose to keep the word grammatĭca, to name the compendium of rules by which the language was governed, meaning with which, in part, it has remained until today.

Types of Grammar

Grammar Types

However, even though Grammar is a great branch of Linguistics that addresses the study of the relations and norms by which a Language is governed, within it you can also find different approaches or ways of approaching the subject of study, hence they also talk about different types of grammar, each of which will then be defined according to the position and conception they have about the language they study . Here is a brief definition of each of them:

Prescriptive grammar

This type of Grammar, also known as normative Grammar, responds perhaps to one of the first approaches that Grammar had, so this discipline is linked to an important traditional sense. As their names indicate, this Grammar aims to study the different rules by which a Language is governed, only instead of observing those that exist, it is responsible for erecting a series of rules and parameters, thereby building a Model language , which is assumed as the ideal that should be pursued by all speakers, either in their oral record, and especially in their written record. Therefore, prescriptive grammar assumes the role of dictating norms on the correct use of the language.

Despite the great presence it had for centuries, nowadays Linguistics considers it an approach to grammar, while pointing out that the norms and conception of the language that prescriptive grammar has gives a partial account of a single level of speech , related to the cultured or academic language, which only a few speakers approach, so it cannot be said that prescriptive grammar actually reports a complete record of the language studied. However, it is still the grammar that everyone who wants to learn the language will study, assuming that she realizes the most standard form of it.

Descriptive grammar

Contrary to the prescriptive grammar, the grammar of descriptive approach has been gaining in linguistics, in recent times. This can be defined as a discipline that approaches a Language, with the purpose of being able to study, observe, identify and register the different norms by which that Language is governed, and that have been conceived naturally by a linguistic community. In this way, the descriptive grammar records these norms and syntactic relations of a language, as well as the use and category of every word used by this community, realizing it, that is, instead of pretending to regulate a language, it describes how it It is regulated.

Traditional grammar

This type of grammar is closely linked to the prescriptive grammar, as well as the conception that it has about the language and its own function of regulating it. In this sense, traditional Grammar receives this name because it is considered part of an academic heritage that could be traced to the very conception that the ancient Greeks had about language. Perhaps because of this, it remains the grammar taught in basic education, in order to convey to the speaker what are the principles by which the language of the linguistic community to which it belongs belongs. Consequently, its approach remains prescriptive, as well as partial, as it takes into account only the Model or standard language.

Functional grammar

On the other hand, Linguistics also calls attention to the so-called Functional Grammar, whose conception is attributed to the Dutch linguist Simon C. Dik, for whom the Language, in addition to social creation, was a social instrument in itself. Therefore, Dik raised in his theory the possibility of studying a language through the observation and recording of the different uses made by speakers of linguistic expressions, typical of his community, hence he receives the name of functional grammar, since his main subject of study will be the functions that perform each of the words and sentences within a language, then studying them as a social instrument. Likewise, functional grammar also assumes that the language is governed by three standards of adequacy: Typological, Pragmatic and Psychological.

Generative Grammar

Regarding the Generative Grammar, the different sources coincide in pointing out the linguist Noam Chomsky as the father of this theory, which focuses on the study of the syntax of a Language, starting from the beginning of power – through the study of syntactic relationships – predict possible combinations of words that form a sentence, considered grammatically acceptable (correct). In this way, through the knowledge of the syntax, the nature of the sentences of a language can be known, as well as the processes and relationships that will intervene in the formation of new sentences. The objective of this type of Grammar will also be to be able to promulgate a series of rules, which can tell the speaker how the different sentences in the Language are generated.

Formal grammar

Finally, within the different types of Grammar, there are the formal Grammatics, which could be understood as those mathematical structures that account for the norms and rules that come into play when generating a string of characters,expressly indicating which are admissible and which are not, within the Logic that the formal Language or Grammar admits. Although these formal languages ​​are common to disciplines such as Logic or Mathematics, they can also be found within Computational Linguistics, as well as within the theoretical Linguistics itself. Regarding its approach, formal grammar would focus on describing the form taken by the different well-formed formulas that comprise it, without being interested in describing their meaning, hence receiving the name of formal grammar.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

In linguistics, the grammar of a natural language is its set of structural constraints on speakers’ or writers’ composition of clauses, phrases, and words. The term can also refer to the study of such constraints, a field that includes domains such as phonology, morphology, and syntax, often complemented by phonetics, semantics, and pragmatics. There are currently two different approaches to the study of grammar: traditional grammar and theoretical grammar.

Fluent speakers of a language variety or lect have effectively internalized these constraints,^[1] the vast majority of which – at least in the case of one’s native language(s) – are acquired not by conscious study or instruction but by hearing other speakers. Much of this internalization occurs during early childhood; learning a language later in life usually involves more explicit instruction.^[2] In this view, grammar is understood as the cognitive information underlying a specific instance of language production.

The term «grammar» can also describe the linguistic behavior of groups of speakers and writers rather than individuals. Differences in scales are important to this sense of the word: for example, the term «English grammar» could refer to the whole of English grammar (that is, to the grammar of all the speakers of the language), in which case the term encompasses a great deal of variation.^[3] At a smaller scale, it may refer only to what is shared among the grammars of all or most English speakers (such as subject–verb–object word order in simple declarative sentences). At the smallest scale, this sense of «grammar» can describe the conventions of just one relatively well-defined form of English (such as standard English for a region).

A description, study, or analysis of such rules may also be referred to as grammar. A reference book describing the grammar of a language is called a «reference grammar» or simply «a grammar» (see History of English grammars). A fully explicit grammar, which exhaustively describes the grammatical constructions of a particular speech variety, is called descriptive grammar. This kind of linguistic description contrasts with linguistic prescription, an attempt to actively discourage or suppress some grammatical constructions while codifying and promoting others, either in an absolute sense or about a standard variety. For example, some prescriptivists maintain that sentences in English should not end with prepositions, a prohibition that has been traced to John Dryden (13 April 1668 – January 1688) whose unexplained objection to the practice perhaps led other English speakers to avoid the construction and discourage its use.^[4][5] Yet preposition stranding has a long history in Germanic languages like English, where it is so widespread as to be a standard usage.

Outside linguistics, the term grammar is often used in a rather different sense. It may be used more broadly to include conventions of spelling and punctuation, which linguists would not typically consider as part of grammar but rather as part of orthography, the conventions used for writing a language. It may also be used more narrowly to refer to a set of prescriptive norms only, excluding those aspects of a language’s grammar which are not subject to variation or debate on their normative acceptability. Jeremy Butterfield claimed that, for non-linguists, «Grammar is often a generic way of referring to any aspect of English that people object to.»^[6]

Etymology[edit]

The word grammar is derived from Greek γραμματικὴ τέχνη (grammatikḕ téchnē), which means «art of letters», from γράμμα (grámma), «letter», itself from γράφειν (gráphein), «to draw, to write».^[7] The same Greek root also appears in the words graphics, grapheme, and photograph.

History[edit]

The first systematic grammar of Sanskrit, originated in Iron Age India, with Yaska (6th century BC), Pāṇini (6th–5th century BC^[8]) and his commentators Pingala (c. 200 BC), Katyayana, and Patanjali (2nd century BC). Tolkāppiyam, the earliest Tamil grammar, is mostly dated to before the 5th century AD. The Babylonians also made some early attempts at language description.^[9]

Grammar appeared as a discipline in Hellenism from the 3rd century BC forward with authors such as Rhyanus and Aristarchus of Samothrace. The oldest known grammar handbook is the Art of Grammar (Τέχνη Γραμματική), a succinct guide to speaking and writing clearly and effectively, written by the ancient Greek scholar Dionysius Thrax (c. 170–c. 90 BC), a student of Aristarchus of Samothrace who founded a school on the Greek island of Rhodes. Dionysius Thrax’s grammar book remained the primary grammar textbook for Greek schoolboys until as late as the twelfth century AD. The Romans based their grammatical writings on it and its basic format remains the basis for grammar guides in many languages even today.^[10] Latin grammar developed by following Greek models from the 1st century BC, due to the work of authors such as Orbilius Pupillus, Remmius Palaemon, Marcus Valerius Probus, Verrius Flaccus, and Aemilius Asper.

The grammar of Irish originated in the 7th century with the Auraicept na n-Éces. Arabic grammar emerged with Abu al-Aswad al-Du’ali in the 7th century. The first treatises on Hebrew grammar appeared in the High Middle Ages, in the context of Mishnah (exegesis of the Hebrew Bible). The Karaite tradition originated in Abbasid Baghdad. The Diqduq (10th century) is one of the earliest grammatical commentaries on the Hebrew Bible.^[11] Ibn Barun in the 12th century, compares the Hebrew language with Arabic in the Islamic grammatical tradition.^[12]

Belonging to the trivium of the seven liberal arts, grammar was taught as a core discipline throughout the Middle Ages, following the influence of authors from Late Antiquity, such as Priscian. Treatment of vernaculars began gradually during the High Middle Ages, with isolated works such as the First Grammatical Treatise, but became influential only in the Renaissance and Baroque periods. In 1486, Antonio de Nebrija published Las introduciones Latinas contrapuesto el romance al Latin, and the first Spanish grammar, Gramática de la lengua castellana, in 1492. During the 16th-century Italian Renaissance, the Questione della lingua was the discussion on the status and ideal form of the Italian language, initiated by Dante’s de vulgari eloquentia (Pietro Bembo, Prose della volgar lingua Venice 1525). The first grammar of Slovene was written in 1583 by Adam Bohorič.

Grammars of some languages began to be compiled for the purposes of evangelism and Bible translation from the 16th century onward, such as Grammatica o Arte de la Lengua General de Los Indios de Los Reynos del Perú (1560), a Quechua grammar by Fray Domingo de Santo Tomás.

From the latter part of the 18th century, grammar came to be understood as a subfield of the emerging discipline of modern linguistics. The Deutsche Grammatik of the Jacob Grimm was first published in the 1810s. The Comparative Grammar of Franz Bopp, the starting point of modern comparative linguistics, came out in 1833.

Theoretical frameworks[edit]

Frameworks of grammar which seek to give a precise scientific theory of the syntactic rules of grammar and their function have been developed in theoretical linguistics.

• Dependency grammar: dependency relation (Lucien Tesnière 1959)
  • Link grammar
• Functional grammar (structural–functional analysis):
  • Danish Functionalism
  • Functional Discourse Grammar
  • Role and reference grammar
  • Systemic functional grammar
• Montague grammar

Other frameworks are based on an innate «universal grammar», an idea developed by Noam Chomsky. In such models, the object is placed into the verb phrase. The most prominent biologically-oriented theories are:

• Cognitive grammar / Cognitive linguistics
  • Construction grammar
    • Fluid Construction Grammar
  • Word grammar
• Generative grammar:
  • Transformational grammar (1960s)
  • Generative semantics (1970s) and Semantic Syntax (1990s)
  • Phrase structure grammar (late 1970s)
    • Generalised phrase structure grammar (late 1970s)
      • Head-driven phrase structure grammar (1985)
      • Principles and parameters grammar (Government and binding theory) (1980s)
  • Lexical functional grammar
  • Categorial grammar (lambda calculus)
  • Minimalist program-based grammar (1993)
• Stochastic grammar: probabilistic
  • Operator grammar

Parse trees are commonly used by such frameworks to depict their rules. There are various alternative schemes for some grammar:

• Affix grammar over a finite lattice
• Backus–Naur form
• Constraint grammar
• Lambda calculus
• Tree-adjoining grammar
• X-bar theory

Development of grammar[edit]

Grammars evolve through usage. Historically, with the advent of written representations, formal rules about language usage tend to appear also, although such rules tend to describe writing conventions more accurately than conventions of speech.^[15] Formal grammars are codifications of usage which are developed by repeated documentation and observation over time. As rules are established and developed, the prescriptive concept of grammatical correctness can arise. This often produces a discrepancy between contemporary usage and that which has been accepted, over time, as being standard or «correct». Linguists tend to view prescriptive grammar as having little justification beyond their authors’ aesthetic tastes, although style guides may give useful advice about standard language employment based on descriptions of usage in contemporary writings of the same language. Linguistic prescriptions also form part of the explanation for variation in speech, particularly variation in the speech of an individual speaker (for example, why some speakers say «I didn’t do nothing», some say «I didn’t do anything», and some say one or the other depending on social context).

The formal study of grammar is an important part of children’s schooling from a young age through advanced learning, though the rules taught in schools are not a «grammar» in the sense that most linguists use, particularly as they are prescriptive in intent rather than descriptive.

Constructed languages (also called planned languages or conlangs) are more common in the modern-day, although still extremely uncommon compared to natural languages. Many have been designed to aid human communication (for example, naturalistic Interlingua, schematic Esperanto, and the highly logic-compatible artificial language Lojban). Each of these languages has its own grammar.

Syntax refers to the linguistic structure above the word level (for example, how sentences are formed) – though without taking into account intonation, which is the domain of phonology. Morphology, by contrast, refers to the structure at and below the word level (for example, how compound words are formed), but above the level of individual sounds, which, like intonation, are in the domain of phonology.^[16] However, no clear line can be drawn between syntax and morphology. Analytic languages use syntax to convey information that is encoded by inflection in synthetic languages. In other words, word order is not significant, and morphology is highly significant in a purely synthetic language, whereas morphology is not significant and syntax is highly significant in an analytic language. For example, Chinese and Afrikaans are highly analytic, thus meaning is very context-dependent. (Both have some inflections, and both have had more in the past; thus, they are becoming even less synthetic and more «purely» analytic over time.) Latin, which is highly synthetic, uses affixes and inflections to convey the same information that Chinese does with syntax. Because Latin words are quite (though not totally) self-contained, an intelligible Latin sentence can be made from elements that are arranged almost arbitrarily. Latin has a complex affixation and simple syntax, whereas Chinese has the opposite.

Education[edit]

Prescriptive grammar is taught in primary and secondary school. The term «grammar school» historically referred to a school (attached to a cathedral or monastery) that teaches Latin grammar to future priests and monks. It originally referred to a school that taught students how to read, scan, interpret, and declaim Greek and Latin poets (including Homer, Virgil, Euripides, and others). These should not be mistaken for the related, albeit distinct, modern British grammar schools.

A standard language is a dialect that is promoted above other dialects in writing, education, and, broadly speaking, in the public sphere; it contrasts with vernacular dialects, which may be the objects of study in academic, descriptive linguistics but which are rarely taught prescriptively. The standardized «first language» taught in primary education may be subject to political controversy because it may sometimes establish a standard defining nationality or ethnicity.

Recently, efforts have begun to update grammar instruction in primary and secondary education. The main focus has been to prevent the use of outdated prescriptive rules in favor of setting norms based on earlier descriptive research and to change perceptions about the relative «correctness» of prescribed standard forms in comparison to non-standard dialects. A series of metastudies have found that the explicit teaching of grammatical parts of speech and syntax has little or no effect on the improvement of student writing quality in elementary school, middle school of high school; other methods of writing instruction had far greater positive effect, including strategy instruction, collaborative writing, summary writing, process instruction, sentence combining and inquiry projects.^[17][18][19]

The preeminence of Parisian French has reigned largely unchallenged throughout the history of modern French literature. Standard Italian is based on the speech of Florence rather than the capital because of its influence on early literature. Likewise, standard Spanish is not based on the speech of Madrid but on that of educated speakers from more northern areas such as Castile and León (see Gramática de la lengua castellana). In Argentina and Uruguay the Spanish standard is based on the local dialects of Buenos Aires and Montevideo (Rioplatense Spanish). Portuguese has, for now, two official standards, respectively Brazilian Portuguese and European Portuguese.

The Serbian variant of Serbo-Croatian is likewise divided; Serbia and the Republika Srpska of Bosnia and Herzegovina use their own distinct normative subvarieties, with differences in yat reflexes. The existence and codification of a distinct Montenegrin standard is a matter of controversy, some treat Montenegrin as a separate standard lect, and some think that it should be considered another form of Serbian.

Norwegian has two standards, Bokmål and Nynorsk, the choice between which is subject to controversy: Each Norwegian municipality can either declare one as its official language or it can remain «language neutral». Nynorsk is backed by 27 percent of municipalities. The main language used in primary schools, chosen by referendum within the local school district, normally follows the official language of its municipality. Standard German emerged from the standardized chancellery use of High German in the 16th and 17th centuries. Until about 1800, it was almost exclusively a written language, but now it is so widely spoken that most of the former German dialects are nearly extinct.

Standard Chinese has official status as the standard spoken form of the Chinese language in the People’s Republic of China (PRC), the Republic of China (ROC), and the Republic of Singapore. Pronunciation of Standard Chinese is based on the local accent of Mandarin Chinese from Luanping, Chengde in Hebei Province near Beijing, while grammar and syntax are based on modern vernacular written Chinese.

Modern Standard Arabic is directly based on Classical Arabic, the language of the Qur’an. The Hindustani language has two standards, Hindi and Urdu.

In the United States, the Society for the Promotion of Good Grammar designated 4 March as National Grammar Day in 2008.^[20]

See also[edit]

• Ambiguous grammar
• Constraint-based grammar
• Grammeme
• Harmonic Grammar
• Higher order grammar (HOG)
• Linguistic error
• Linguistic typology
• Paragrammatism
• Speech error (slip of the tongue)
• Usage (language)
• Usus

Notes[edit]

External links[edit]

• Grammar from the Oxford English Dictionary
• Sayce, Archibald Henry (1911). «Grammar» . Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.).